The Three Point Play 07.01.08: Drafts, Trades, and Finals....Oh My!

Posted by Blake Lovell on 07.01.2008

The Three Point Play returns with a look at how the Celtics defeated the Lakers for the NBA title. Also, the draft is examined, including how the top picks may fare this upcoming season. And will Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Bosh make the Raptors contenders in the Eastern Conference? All of this and more inside!



Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Three Point Play, right here on 411mania! After a week's vacation, I have returned to provide you my thoughts on the Celtics big win, the winners and losers of the draft, and a look at some of the trades that have taken place. But we've got a lot to get to, so let's jump right into all the NBA action.

1. The Finals

Let's quickly talk about the NBA Finals, and the huge win for the Boston Celtics (in more ways than one). The Celtics embarrassed the Lakers in Game 6, and walked away as the champions of the National Basketball Association. I didn't see this coming at all, as I expected the Lakers to pretty much coast to another championship. That was definitely not the case though, as the Celtics played their best basketball of the season and the playoffs, especially when you look at the big three for Boston. It was a total team victory for the Celtics, and they really did deserve it. Their defense was great, their offense was great, they were the total package in the Finals. They were a different team than the team we saw in the first two rounds against Atlanta and Cleveland. They turned the corner against the Pistons when they finally got a road win, and then they started playing like they were capable of playing.

Looking back on it now, I'm not really sure why I would have picked against the Celtics. Sure, the Lakers were the hottest team and playing the best heading into the Finals. They had the best player and the best coach in the league. However, the talent of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen was just too much for the Lakers to handle. There are certain circumstances where you pick one great player over three of them (like back in the Jordan era), but this clearly wasn't that situation. Garnett, Pierce, and Allen are all in the upper-echelon of talent in the league, and putting all that talent together is the reason why the Celtics have added another championship trophy to their case. Go back to last off-season. When Danny Ainge put all these guys together, it seemed like a no-brainer that they would win a title. We weren't sure it would be this early, but with the pieces in place, it was inevitable that they would win sometime. I thought the adjustment period would last a little bit longer than it did, but then again, they did set a record for most games played in a postseason, so they had plenty of time to get use to each other.

As for the Lakers, they were greatly exposed. The credit goes to the Celtics defense for that, as they looked completely out of sync against a much more physical defensive team like Boston. The defensive scheme of the Celtics was nothing short of brilliant, as guys like Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol were unable to provide the Lakers with any type of offensive explosion as they had in recent series. Gasol looked extremely soft inside, even more so than his finesse style usually shows. I expected Gasol to handle the physicality a little bit better on the inside, but that didn't quite happen. Odom just seemed to hit a downward spiral towards the end of the postseason, as he really couldn't find his game at all. The bench play for the Lakers was not the same either in the Finals, as they didn't give the Lakers the spark they had in previous series. Basically, the Lakers played bad at a bad time. And a lot of that has to do with the play of the Celtics. They elevated their game to a championship level, which is why they are the champions, and the Lakers are not.

It'll be interesting to see what types of moves are made by both teams this off-season. The Lakers will undoubtedly have to make some type of push to get a physical inside presence to compliment the Gasol's finesse game. And they need to have a point guard in place for Derek Fisher, because Fisher's only going to get older. I'm not sure Jordan Farmar is that guy, but we'll see what happens. That's really all they seem to be lacking right now. The Celtics don't really have to make any moves. Their starting five is just fine the way it is, and their bench is in pretty good shape too. They could lose James Posey to another team, and Sam Cassell's best days are behind him. So the Celtics really don't have a lot of worries heading into the off-season. And why should they? They're world champions.

2. The Draft

With this year's draft now behind us, let's take a look at what to expect from some of the bigger names selected. It was really no surprise that Derrick Rose was selected number one overall to the Chicago Bulls, and Michael Beasley was selected second to the Miami Heat. There were rumors heading into the draft that Miami would trade the pick for someone else, but that never seemed to get anywhere. Now the Bulls have their point guard of the future, and the Heat have their swingman of the future to go alongside Dwayne Wade. Both teams came out of this very well, as we said they would before the draft began. Both players are going to have at least solid careers in the league, and both have that superstar potential. I would think we'll see the Bulls make a few more trades throughout the off-season to sort of revamp the roster around Rose, and the Heat will have to keep adding some pieces as well. Having Wade, Shawn Marion, and Beasley isn't exactly bad for the Heat. These two teams definitely made themselves a whole lot better in this draft.

One of the more interesting moves in the draft was O.J. Mayo going at number three to Minnesota, only to be traded later to Memphis for the rights to Kevin Love out of UCLA. This was a move the Grizzlies had to make, despite all of the criticism they're getting from the media. They are arguably the worst franchise in the league right now, yes, even worse than the Sonics. While Love may be a good player, Mayo will be the better player. At this point in time, I'm not completely sold on Love as a great pro player, but he could still be solid. And the Grizzlies had to acquire Mayo to better their guard play. They've got needs everywhere, but Mayo was the best fit for them. Mayo will step right in immediately and contribute for the Grizzlies, as they need major help in a lot of areas. Yes, the Grizzlies had to give up Mike Miller, arguably their second best player behind Rudy Gay, but does it really matter? They traded Pau Gasol for absolutely nothing. So what else do you expect from this franchise? If they're aiming to rebuild, they might as well start from the bottom up.

All in all, it was a pretty good draft overall. There was a lot of talent at the top, and some good moves were made. Of course the Hawks didn't realize any of this, since they didn't have a draft pick, but hey, there is always next year. I didn't expect Jerryd Bayless to drop all the way to 11, as I thought he was better overall than Russell Westbrook who was taken at number four by Seattle. The consensus was that the Knicks would take Danilo Gallinari, and that's exactly what happened. Don't know much about the guy, but we'll see what happens. The Clippers had a good draft, getting Eric Gordon at number seven, and DeAndre Jordan at 35, which was a steal at that point in the draft. The Nets got a good pickup, getting Brook Lopez at number ten, which again, I think is a steal. Lopez was one of the top five players in this draft, and now the Nets have their big man of the future with this pick.

3. The Trades

Speaking of the New Jersey Nets, they made another very interesting move over the past week, trading Richard Jefferson to the Milwaukee Bucks for Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. With this move, the Nets are officially going to build for the future. More importantly, with this trade, they are officially preparing for the Lebron James sweepstakes which will take place in 2010. This was bound to happen sooner or later for the Nets, as they have made their presence felt in the Eastern Conference over the past several years. But now they'll start rebuilding, and hopefully try to pick up Lebron if/and when he leaves Cleveland. The Nets now have two promising big men in Yi and Brook Lopez, as in the past they've been much more guard-oriented. If indeed they do land Lebron, they seem to be making all the right moves right now to get a solid cast around him.

On the other side of this trade, the Bucks really helped themselves out. Putting Jefferson alongside Michael Redd will be something that could really help the Bucks get back to the playoffs on a consistent basis. Jefferson is a very good player, but it just seemed like once Jason Kidd left New Jersey, he had to be moved somewhere else eventually. The Bucks also got Joe Alexander from West Virginia in the draft, which also plays the small forward position. If Andrew Bogut can step up and be a force on the inside, watch out. They may not be great this upcoming season, but give this team a year or two, and they may be make a statement in the Eastern Conference at some point.

Another big trade that took place over the past week was Jermaine O'Neal being shipped from Indiana to Toronto for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic. This is one of those trades that's really hard to judge right now. On one hand, if O'Neal is healthy, this is a great pickup for the Raptors, as he and Chris Bosh would be an unstoppable combo in the paint. But on the other hand, if O'Neal continues to be injury-prone, the Raptors will have just given away a very good point guard for nothing. Ford is going to really help out the Pacers, as he keeps improving a steady pace. The outcome of this trade will depend on the health of O'Neal, plain and simple. On paper, the Raptors made a good move. But in reality, we'll have to wait and see.

THE BONUS

- The Wizards are set to make an offer to Gilbert Arenas for 6 years, which is an excellent move on the part of the Washington organization. Say what you want about the guy, but he can play. They're much better off with him than without him. They still need to add a solid guard to compliment his style though. And it also looks like the Wizards are going to lock up Antawn Jamison as well, which should come as no surprise since Arenas said that was the only way he would return to Washington.

- Now let's talk about the Shaq rap. Was it funny? I suppose. Was it a big deal? Not really. Kobe probably didn't enjoy it too much, but Shaq claims it was all in good fun. Either way, it's no big issue to me. Sure it was pretty stupid on Shaq's part, but am I going to be the one to tell him that to his face? I don't think so. We all know they don't like each other that much, so this is really nothing new.

That's all for this edition of the Three Point Play. Tune in next time for more coverage of all the moves being made this off-season.